I have very real concerns about J.D. Hall being embraced as a partner in this campaign against Woke Christianity and radical Leftism in America – concerns that his partnership serves as a kind of poison pill for such efforts and will ultimately help rather than hinder Wokism and Leftism, both inside and outside the Church. These concerns are not merely hypothetical, but are borne of my personal interactions with Jordan, having attended his church for a brief time, and having gotten to know him directly, family-to-family, over the course of several months.
To be clear, we did not move to Sidney, Montana or start attending Fellowship with any foreknowledge of the his controversial backstory. I was completely clueless as to who Jordan was prior to that first Sunday in 2013.
As memory serves me rather fuzzily, it may have actually been a few years before I read up and researched the controversies surrounding Hall and his public life. But in any event, I was not acquainted with his infamy when we decided to attend, nor when I felt strongly led to stop attending.
But I wrote about Hall twice at On The Rocks Blog – once in November of 2017 after he and another man from his church were dragged out of a Pentecostal revival in Dickinson, North Dakota; another time in January of 2020 when my earlier publication was picked up by a local reporter at the Sidney Herald and was being used to try and quash efforts at making Richland County, Montana into a 2nd Amendment Sanctuary.
In other words, I have written publicly about Hall as the intersection of occasion and conscience has necessitated, and no more.
But let me be clear: whatever he likely thinks or is liable to say, I am not obsessed with Jordan Hall. But still having friends and family in Eastern Montana, and having lived in Sidney, Montana for several years, I maintain roots despite having moved to Weld County, Colorado two years ago. And I still hear about Hall's antics from time to time, without prompting or pursuit on my part.
Before moving to Northeastern Colorado, I had even entertained some thoughts of running for public office at a certain point – for Montana House District 35, for instance, if Jordan ever ran for that seat. And I had close ties with a few persons who were very involved in Eastern Montana politics and had encouraged me to join onto movements – Richland County Republicans, for instance.
I ultimately declined to join that last movement in particular when I learned that Hall was the leading spokesperson. And I declined precisely because I believe him to be a mad dog who will in the end hurt the causes and people he embraces, and who embrace him in return.
It is one thing to say that a guard dog is good to keep around when there are wolves in the wooded hills. And I do say that, heartily.
But when the guard dog either cannot or will not distinguish between the wolves and the sheep, and might as soon bite your guests and family as defend them from the wolves, that sort of guard dog is more of a liability than an asset.
So also with J.D. Hall. So consider yourselves warned.
